Homelab Improvement Guide

This guide provides recommendations for improving the efficiency, reliability, and security of your homelab.

1. High Availability

Your current setup has a single point of failure for several services due to placement constraints tying them to a single node. To improve high availability, we recommend the following:

Remove Single-Node Constraints: In your Docker Swarm service definitions (applications-stack.yml, monitoring-stack.yml), remove the following placement constraints:
- node.labels.leader == true
- node.role == manager
Replicate Services: Increase the replica count for critical services to at least 2. This will ensure that the services remain available if a node goes down. For example, in your applications-stack.yml:
```
services:
  paperless:
    # ...
    deploy:
      replicas: 2
      # ...
```
Stateful Services: For stateful services like databases, consider the following options:
- Distributed Database: Use a database designed for high availability, such as Galera Cluster for MySQL or Patroni for PostgreSQL.
- Shared Storage: Use a shared storage solution like NFS or GlusterFS that is accessible from all nodes in the swarm.

2. Hardware Efficiency

Resource Limit Tuning: Your current resource limits are a good starting point, but they can be optimized. Use your monitoring stack (Prometheus and Grafana) to analyze the actual resource usage of your services over time. Adjust the limits and reservations in your docker-compose.yml files to better match the actual usage. This will prevent over-provisioning and improve hardware utilization.
Node Affinity: If you have nodes with specific hardware (e.g., GPUs), use node labels and placement constraints to schedule services on the appropriate nodes. For example:
```
services:
  jellyfin:
    # ...
    deploy:
      placement:
        constraints:
          - node.labels.gpu == true
```

3. Security

Secret Management:
- Paperless Secret Key: The PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY in applications-stack.yml should be stored as a Docker secret.
  1. Create the secret:
```
openssl rand -hex 32 | docker secret create paperless_secret_key -
```
  2. Update your applications-stack.yml:
```
services:
  paperless:
    # ...
    secrets:
      - paperless_secret_key
    environment:
      # ...
      - PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY_FILE: /run/secrets/paperless_secret_key
```
- Backup Credentials: The Backblaze B2 credentials in backup_daily.sh should be stored as Docker secrets. You can then mount these secrets into the container that runs the backup script.
Network Policies: Implement Docker Swarm network policies to restrict traffic between services. This adds an extra layer of security to your homelab.

4. Quality of Life

Automated Backup Verification: Extend your backup_daily.sh script to include a step that automatically verifies the integrity of your backups. restic check can be used for this purpose.
Centralized Logging: For easier log analysis, consider setting up a centralized logging solution like the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) or Grafana Loki.
Documentation:
- Architecture Diagram: Create a diagram of your network architecture and service dependencies. This will make it easier to understand and troubleshoot your homelab.
- Update README.md: Add a link to this guide in your main README.md file.

5. `tsdproxy`

Review Configuration: The search results suggest that tsdproxy can be complex to set up in a multi-host Docker Swarm. Review your tsdproxy configuration to ensure it is working correctly. Check the tsdproxy logs for any errors.
Consult Documentation: If you encounter issues, consult the official tsdproxy documentation and GitHub issues for troubleshooting tips.

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